Most Elaborate/Technically Advanced Scenic Designs- Page 2

[bowtie7]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 4:54pm

While the actual sets where not that elaborate--the quick changes of scenery in Yerma were a technical marvel.

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 4:57pm

In terms of historical options, I think you have to look at Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard as some of the most elaborate. I always thought the original Into the Woods was very ahead of its day too. 

For more recent ones, I thought My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center was dazzling (that house alone was gorgeous) and of course Great Comet. And the build-out for Spongebob and Moulin Rouge are/were impressive though, as someone said, it was less so when the curtain rose.

[Luminaire2]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 5:16pm

While the set as a whole was not technically that impressive, I need to give a shout-out to 9 to 5.

 

The scene change from the title number into the office was… chefs kiss!  

[mememe]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 5:23pm

TaffyDavenport said: "David Zinn's scenic design for Spongebob was next-level:



"

Beautiful but not necessarily elaborate, and certainly not technically complex 

[jagman1062]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 5:24pm

Wee Thomas2 said:

But really, I can't recall the name of a play that was on a huge raised turntable. Maybe 8-9 years ago? And they had trouble with the mechanism (it wasn't Machinal) and had to manually turn it at least once during previews"

Might you mean Act One at LCT at the Beaumont? I loved that set, but I can't for the life of me remember if there was a turntable. 

Sunset Blvd's set was amazing. As I recall, they had to get permits and building inspections to meet codes (I would think this requirement is true for many sets, but the newspapers at the time made a point of talking about it).

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 6:06pm

Sure the original FOLLIES and SWEENEY TODD were lush and brilliant designs, but honestly very simple technologically. Remember, the pie shop-barber shop unit was just rolled on and off by cast members. 
I’ll second the mention of GRIND, which featured a turntable carrying a backstage maze of dressing rooms on 5 levels along with a vaudeville stage with a full working fly loft. Watching the drops go up and down WHILE the deck rotated was absolute bliss. 

 

Updated On: 4/21/23 at 06:06 PM

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 6:10pm

And to answer Jagman, yep, Act I had that gorgeous skeletal structure set on a giant turntable so you saw through the tenement sets to the Beekman Place mansion Hart would arrive at by Act 2. The set that put the brilliant Beowulf Borritt on the map. His current designs for NY NY are equally sumptuous though perhaps not so groundbreaking technologically. 

Updated On: 4/20/23 at 06:10 PM

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 6:25pm

mememe said: "TaffyDavenport said: "David Zinn's scenic design for Spongebob was next-level:



"

Beautiful but not necessarily elaborate, and certainly not technically complex"

It had functioning Rube Goldberg machines, so I disagree. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 6:40pm

Auggie27 said: "I heard that the ill-fated Ghost was one of the most difficult to maintain, with led lights and the magical walls. The projections were fully integrated on every surface, and though the final effect was simple, the execution was a programming nightmare. I know someone who worked on the show, and it was one tech crisis after another."

It was breaking down even in previews. I remember going to see it on a Wednesday night and the show was stopped in Act II for 40 minutes due to a set piece breaking during a transition in the song…wait for it…”Nothing Stops Another Day”

[Ravenclaw]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 6:59pm

The National Theatre's His Dark Materials was a technical marvel... so much that some say it was a detriment to the play...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4f14uO27eI

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 8:32pm

Ravenclaw said: "The National Theatre'sHis Dark Materialswas a technical marvel... so much that some say it was a detriment to the play...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4f14uO27eI"

Not to mention Angels in America. I've never seen an entire show deck turn into an entirely different show deck. That was just insane to witness, from a tech nerve perspective. 

[BentleyB]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 9:17pm

While not technically amazing, but gorgeous was the Edward Gorey’s set design for Dracula.  Each set change was incredible and the one touch of red was perfection.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 9:34pm

Mary Zimmerman and her design team turning Circle in the Square into a giant pool for Metamorphoses was pretty amazing. 

[jagman1062]

Posted: 4/20/23 at 11:19pm

I remember back in the 80s, K2 at the Atkinson (now Horne) had a spectacular set that won awards and people said was better than the play. The play only ran a few months and closed the week before I was going to see it. 

[JBradshaw]

Posted: 4/21/23 at 12:05am

SUNSET BLVD. 
After the show closed at the bway flea market that year parts of Norma’s mansion were on sale from the Broadway set. 
i purchased the stained glass windows behind the stairs. 

 

i always loved the original secret garden set and the victor / Victoria set. The beauty and the beast (at the palace) was amazing. 

[andrewsmash]

Posted: 4/21/23 at 12:37am

I would think The Cursed Child would fit into this list and maybe POTUS? Also thinking about Hangmen. That set was pretty incredible for its use of space.

[DEHFanatic]

Posted: 4/21/23 at 7:25pm

Miss Saigon! All the individual panels that ringed the stage and were raised and lowered...all the set pieces that glided in and out...and the Fall of Saigon scene was incredible, with the helicopter being the cherry on top :)

[kingjames2]

Posted: 4/21/23 at 8:57pm

While I adore (and worked on) Great Comet, that set was deceptively quite simple - it took an absurd amount of setup and labor to install, but once we had it in, very little actually transformed on/about it.

Not Broadway, but the most technically advanced sets out there are the major Vegas Cirque shows (O, Ka, etc). I'd give an honorable mention to that disaster of a set for Lepage's Ring Cycle at the Met.

[pethian]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 11:34pm

I had never seen a set like the one for THE LEHMAN TRILOGY before, nor one that did what it did.